Mike - Church Blog - Page 3

Subtitled: A New Age is Dawning for Every Mother’s Daughter While that statement may be true for all women, it is especially so for women living in patriarchal societies.  Bonnie (Hewson) and I keep a finger on the pulse of women’s emancipation by attending the annual fundraiser for Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, which is where I found this book.  Armstrong has long been known as a women’s rights activist.  In this book, she tells the stories of women and girls that are so moving, you don’t know whether to weep or shout for joy at their audacity.  We know...

So, how do you feel about suicide?  Euthanasia?  Mercy killing?  Given the discussions going on in Ottawa and the decisions being made with which we will all have to live, we  need to decide where we stand as individuals and as a community of faith.  Author Tada has lived with these decisions and knows whereof she speaks.  Coming from a Christian fundamentalist background, her beliefs aren’t necessarily mine.  Still, she lays the arguments out clearly and this can only help you decide what is right for you.  There are other books in our library giving other points of view.  Look in...

In this light mystery novel, there is a burglar in the small town of Morning Shade, Arkansas.  However, this burglar doesn’t steal.  Instead, the burglar redecorates, rearranges furniture, cleans closets, puts up new art work – in fact, spends money to make other people’s homes look better.  And most of the time, those whose houses have been “burglarized” appreciate the improvement.   Frustrated author, Maude Diamond, discovers, in this real life mystery, the inspiration for the book she is writing and it pulls her out of writer’s block, while also helping her deal with her personal reality of being a new...

The story of Masada can be told in many voices.  I’ve already reviewed a book which tells the tale in the words of the Roman captain, Silva.  In Kossoff’s book, it is the voices of the five survivors that we hear, principally that of Ruth, whose fictional journal challenges the accepted record of Josephus.  Whose version is correct, we can only guess.  Those of us who stood on Masada’s vast plateau  trying to envisage a battle that was lost before it was fought, might prefer Ruth’s words of grief and loss.  The truth will probably never be known, at least until...

Sound a little boring?  Don’t you believe it!  Lewis is one of the world’s foremost Islamic scholars, and his understanding of Islam’s place in the world is monumental.  Here is a history lesson we have somehow not quite understood.  While Europe suffered from barbarism and unbelief during the dark ages, Islam kept civilization moving forward in the fields of art, science, medicine and architecture.  So what happened?  Indeed, what went wrong?   Finding the answers is fascinating stuff, especially in these days of ISIS jihad.  Read Lewis and weep.   Reviewed by Joy Duncan.    ...

This book appeared unannounced on my desk last week.  Serendipity?  A gift from the universe?  I don’t know but it seemed timely, given David's and Susan’s great sermons on the parables.  McCollough, an American theologian and artist, has not only cast 33 parables in a new light, he has cast each in clay, with pictures included in the book.  Strangely, he looks at the parables as they might have been in first century Palestine, exactly as Susan challenged us to do one Sunday.  A CD is included, to help us take this leap in understanding.  Many thanks to whoever dropped this...

We have established several new categories in our library.   I am most excited about a section devoted to books of meditations.   Located just inside the library door, you will find here a spiritual richness that cries out to be taken home.  I started reading the Guidepost books while still in the old church, wondering all the while who had donated them. Beginning year #7, I opened the cover and there on the flyleaf was her name - Enid King.  Then there’s the all time favourite, Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach.  I have given a copy to my granddaughter so that...

You first met author Baigent in Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the book upon which The DaVinci Code was based.  In The Jesus Papers, he introduces more of what I call ‘cloak and dagger Jesus’.  There is simply no end to conjecture about what might have happened 2000 years ago.  Do we spend time reading this stuff?  What IS one to believe?  Well, I think we need to be aware of what is being written about the foundations of our faith.  But do we take it seriously?  That is a question you might ask David or Susan, our ministers.  Still, it would...

©David Robertson 2014     Recent conversations have been about how hard it is to believe that one year has passed since the waters swept through High River and the wider South Western Alberta region.  For most people it doesn’t feel like a year.  It feels much shorter than that. For others the time has dragged on and on for what feels like an eternity. And yet, it’s all the same time.  The earth has completed one orbit around the sun and here we are.  It’s the same season, but it’s not the same life we live.  It’s the same time of...

©Susan Lukey 2014   I’m here! Sometimes I have to stop and pat my arms and my legs and tell myself, “I’m here.” Yes, a disaster happened. But I’m here. There have been painful and traumatic moments, moments of feeling with overwhelming sadness and fear. But I’m here. I pat my legs and arms and head and remind myself, that in spite of all that happened on June 20th and in the days following, I AM HERE!   I am here. I have survived all the ups and downs and overwhelming challenges of this first year. It wasn’t easy, but I...